It is really cool to see this video. Above is a post by a person who is not really related to Joseph Jefferson. She mentioned the picture in front of the church, with my father, listed as Edwin Childe, great great grandson of Joseph Jefferson. His full name is Edwin Ogden Childe,. In the picture with him is his mother, Cynthia Carol Corlett Childe,( It seems she remarried and her name was Brechter when she died?)I cannot confirm who her new husband was. and grandmother, Lauretta Jefferson Corlett, granddaughter of Joseph Jefferson by way of his first son, Charles. My father Edwin Ogden Childe was the son of Edwin Ogden Childe, the son of actress Alberta Gallatin Childe. This link is his wedding announcement to my grandmother Cynthia Carol Corlett. https://www.nytimes.com/1929/11/15/archives/miss-corlett-weds-in-little-church-greatgranddaughter-of-joseph.html
Lauretta Jefferson married William Wellington Corlett (Jr.) So it Goes, Joseph Jefferson,Charles b. Jefferson, Lauretta Jefferson,Cynthia Carol Corlett, Edwin Ogden Childe, Me. The first Edwin Ogden Childe was born a slave on the Childe plantation in Virginia. He became a successful actor and cofounded the Edgar Alan Poe Society in New York. He married Alberta Gallatin Jenkins, Daughter of the plantation owning Civil War General.Albert Gallatin Jenkins ( The Ghosts of Greenbottom, a free documentary tells that story) this is a movie he made. He played Stephanus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf9xzn_bbCw
They had one son Edwin Ogden Childe. He married Cynthia Carol Corlett and my father was their first son.

I have never seen this many segments of my great, great, grandfathers work. I am grateful. My father was Edwin Childe son of Cynthia Brecher. They were captured in a picture, about the Church Around The Corner in New York City. I have several books from my grandmother and buttons from Joseph Jefferson's vest. I feel lucky to be a descendant. He was a good man with many talents as an artist canvas as well as the stage.

These sequences were not shot on stage, but rather on Joseph Jefferson's Buzzard's Bay estate in 1896 by the American Mutograph Company. The 1902 date on the title frame was when the copyright was secured by making a bromide print of every single frame. Jefferson was an investor in the company.

These scenes were adapted for out-of-doors shooting from the stage play. In the stage version of these scenes the "dwarves" were silent. The gesturing is fairly accurate rather than adaptations for silent film. Rip's famous toast was "Here's to your health and your family's and may they all live long and prosper."

In Irving's original story the men Rip met on the mountain top were the ghosts of Henrik Hudson's crew. In Jefferson's stage version they were dwarves. Note how they crouched. It is unclear who played these roles for the filming. When Rip finally succumbs to the liquor they provide, note that one of the actors (on the right) seems to begin removing his costume as if his scene was over.

We see Jefferson's skill at its best in the last two sequences, when Rip awakens. He reaches down to pick up his musket only to have it disintegrate...wherewith it seamlessly becomes a walking stick. The final moment when he looks out over the Hudson Valley is the subject of a painting by George Waters.

The truth is that this is a remarkable artifact of a time during the early birth of motion pictures. Jefferson was 67 when it was made and had been playing that role for nearly forty years. So, for the film, in the early scenes he is an older man playing the younger Rip. Earlier in his career the age disparity occurred when he played the old Rip. Jefferson was one of the very first important stage actors to make in film.

Interesting penny arcade serial here. (The brevity of the "films" is probably due to the number of pictures that one can fit into a coin operated machine at a time, and so what we have here is a bunch of short "films" - sets of still pictures - that were likely used in those arcade machines.) Yeah, historically significant and all that, too.

This film is important in that it captures the work of Joseph Jefferson III, a significant comic in the American stage of the 19th century. Rip Van Winkle is the role most associated with him; he debuted it in 1859 in Washington and played it for 40 years.
He was also a teacher to actor James O'Neill, the father of playwright Eugene O'Neill.

It is interesting to watch this restored, stylized motion picture made over 100 years ago. Compared to films made a decade later, the viewer can see the tremendous technilogical progress that was achieved.

Wolf Says" "However, what is particularly fascinating is contrasting this film with films that would come even just 5-10 years later,"

True, That's when the technological apparatus evolved, but consider as well the fifteen years from 1915-1930 where in terms of story telling the jump went from shorts to the feature form we still use today.

In mythological terms the Rip Van Winkle story is found in many cultures and dates at least to the stone age- man falls asleep-goes underhill-meets fairies- awakens to find old world gone. but the Van Winkle version is considered today somewhat outre considering how widely known it once was.

What I find interesting is the evolution of elves/lephrechans from
cutey pies of mid 20th cent. to the chthonic critters you see in the fantasy genre, RPG, books, comics etc. of today

Just guessing but I suppose in Washington Irving's day they took the tale as a cautionary, "don't be lazy" type story.

A series of short (about 20-30 sec) scenes that depict the Irving classic "Rip Van Winkle". The first two parts appear to be shot in Edison's studio in New York, which opened up to allow in natural sunlight. The remaining reels, where Van Winkle leaves with the dwarves and drinks to oblivion, appear to be shot outside.

One of the biggest problems with films of this era is a combination of the short running time of the reel, which does not allow any sort of narrative flow to be created. Also, the notion of title cards had not come about yet, so any acting is pure pantomime and overwrought in the late 19th century manner. However, what is particularly fascinating is contrasting this film with films that would come even just 5-10 years later, and the rapid leaps and bounds in staging, camera work , and narrative structure that would occur in that time.